The Heir Apparent: Jimmy Panetta following in father Leon's footsteps

If you've been involved in community activities or politics lately, you may have noticed that, suddenly, Jimmy Panetta is everywhere.

From stumping for a veterans cemetery to wading into tensions between fishermen and environmentalists, the 43-year-old deputy district attorney and the youngest of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's three boys is busy learning the ropes of Monterey County.

He's made no secret of his motivation. He wants to follow his dad's footsteps to Congress when Rep. Sam Farr retires, possibly in 2016.

Publicly, the young Panetta gets high marks as a hard-working, charismatic person with an engaging smile and impressive resume: Santa Clara University Law School, Monterey County gang prosecutor via the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, Afghanistan War veteran, member of numerous Central Coast boards.

Privately, his political coming out party has raised some eyebrows, if not ruffled feathers. There are others who were believed to be eying a potential run at Farr's seat, state Sen. Bill Monning and Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett among them.

But Panetta's early entry into the fray has cleared that board, according to political insiders. While he's never held office, his name and his beloved father's influence may trump political experience or money — even Packard-family money behind Burnett, a grandson of David Packard.

While Panetta is clear that he does not intend to challenge a sitting Farr, some are saying he should have let the ink dry on the congressman's 2014 re-election papers before he began jockeying to be on the 2016 ballot.

Burnett confirmed that he has ruled out a run for Congress the year Farr retires, but said he made the decision for family reasons before Panetta went public. Burnett said he does not want to be away from his young son, but has not ruled out a candidacy for the seat when he is older.

Monning lost narrowly to Farr in the 1993 special election primary to replace Leon Panetta when he resigned from Congress to become President Bill Clinton's budget director. The senator said there's nothing to talk about at this point, though his future is also a question mark.

"Last time I checked, Sam Farr was still our representative," Monning said. "Everyone's entitled to pursue political office in this country. I just think I value my working relationship with Sam and I am going to support him until I hear he's got other plans."

Typically, when there's an incumbent with 20 years in office, Monning said, you let that person decide when to call it quits.

"Normal protocols may not apply in this circumstance," Monning said.

Leon Panetta, who also served as CIA director, recently said that both he and his son have told Farr he has their support as long as he wants to remain in office.

Through his spokesman, Farr withheld comment on the subject.

"Sam has stated publicly he is running in 2014 and is not commenting on any future races," said his press secretary, Adam Russell. "He has said he would most likely stay out of any primaries after he does retire, though."

Longtime Farr supporter and Democratic officeholder Fred Keeley said the situation now is no different than when Leon Panetta was still in Congress. Many people, including Farr, talked about aspirations of succeeding him when he retired.

"It is not presumptuous. It makes sense for people to let people know what their interests are," Keeley said. "That said, we have one congressman at a time and I'm supportive of Sam."

Support for Farr is widespread among Democratic faithful. It hasn't stopped anyone, however, from taking notice of Jimmy Panetta, whose father, even out of office, is arguably the most powerful public figure on the Central Coast.

Jimmy Panetta is a "pretty bright light," said Monterey County Supervisor Dave Potter, an active Democrat. "He's got the personality, he's got the record, the charisma. This guy's going to be able to break down some partisan walls."

It's those partisan walls that worry the elder Panetta. Washington, he said, is a much meaner place than when he was first elected in 1976.

"My greatest concern is that the place is dysfunctional in terms of the ability of people to work together to solve problems," said the senior Panetta. "But this is a problem not solved from top down. It's going to be from the bottom up.

"That means young people like Jimmy will return our democracy to a governing process that can work."

Bunkmates

Jimmy Panetta's aspirations for Congress were forged, literally, at his father's side.

Fresh out of UC Davis with a degree in international relations, Congressman Panetta's son took an internship at the U.S. State Department, a young diplomat's dream. His dad invited him to bunk at his Washington apartment, which was not.

The pad belonged to Congressmen George Miller. He had one bedroom and Rep. Marty Russo had the other. Rep. Chuck Shumer took the fold-out couch because his New York jurisdiction was closest.

Panetta and son slept on a full-size bed in the living room. After long days at the office, they went to the congressional gym together. At dinner, they broke bread with other legislators. It was 1991.

"The thing that struck me the most is what's missing today," said the younger Panetta. "He'd go out with this group of congressmen and congresswomen and they weren't just Democrats, they were Republican as well, and they all got along and it contributed to their working relationship.

"I realized then that I wanted to go to law school, but I think it also began the idea of my serving in Washington," he said.

Years later, the younger Panetta would have heady moments at his father's side on Air Force One and sitting 20 feet from President Barack Obama at this year's inauguration. But it was his dad's work as congressman — hearing from people whose lives were affected in the most basic ways by his father's interventions — that cemented his vision.

Two instances stand out. Jimmy Panetta and King City native Rafael Vasquez became friends when both were prosecutors in Alameda. Stand-out athletes at King City and Carmel high schools, they took every opportunity to trade good-natured barbs about the schools' teams, but seldom talked politics.

When Leon Panetta was named CIA director, however, Vasquez sent his friend a congratulatory email and shared that Panetta's father had once helped his family get a low-income house in King City when the developer tried to shirk his duty.

"My dad once told me we should always show a great deal of gratitude and appreciation for your father," said Vasquez, now assistant district attorney in Santa Cruz. Thanks to Panetta, he said, "I was able to grow up in South Monterey County, attend King City High and beat down those 'Padre Pansies' from Carmel.'"

When his father was secretary of defense, Jimmy Panetta accompanied him back to Afghanistan, where the younger Panetta had served in 2007 and 2008. At a forward operating station, Panetta the elder statesman sat down for an off-the-record conversation with six enlisted men, accompanied only by his aide and his son.

Encouraged to speak freely, one soldier started with what at first seemed a surly remark: "I gotta thank you for being here," he said.

He went on to explain to Secretary Panetta that decades earlier his father was stationed in Germany, where he met and married his wife. On returning to Fort Ord, he couldn't get her into the United States. Even the Army had been unsuccessful, until Congressman Panetta intervened.

"Your office stepped in and they got my mother here and that's why I was raised in Seaside and that's why I'm here today and I want to thank you for that," Jimmy Panetta recalled him saying.

"It's stuff like that, the influence someone in that position can have on an individual, that's what it comes down to for me," Panetta said. "It's like Tip O'Neill's quote: 'All politics is local.'"

Tour in Afghanistan

Since his time in the State Department, Jimmy Panetta has traveled a path that almost seems designed to lead him back to Washington. He said he has the advice of his mother, Sylvia: "Don't ever let the grass grow under your feet."

Panetta graduated from Monterey Peninsula College and UC Davis before going on to Santa Clara University Law School. After joining the Alameda County prosecutor's office, where he met his future wife, Carrie, he fulfilled a longtime desire to join the Navy Reserve.

In 2007, when his daughters were just 1 and 3, he volunteered for a tour in Afghanistan, with Carrie's blessing.

"I just couldn't sit there and wear the uniform at home when there were people in Iraq dying and wearing the uniform as well," he said.

He served for a year as an intelligence officer with the Joint Special Operations Command, which is in charge of Delta Force and Seal Team 6.

"It was a very emasculating experience," he said of watching the exploits of the rugged team that would later kill Osama bin Laden while his father was running the CIA.

The younger Panetta was at the table in the Sardine Factory the night Leon accepted restaurateur Ted Balestreri's famous challenge to take out bin Laden for a $10,000 bottle of 1870 Chateau Lafite Rothschild.

Hometown life

Panetta said he's always appreciated that his parents raised him and his brothers in Carmel. He met many people at the State Department who had moved with the agency all their lives and never had a hometown.

Though his dad was in Washington, D.C., most weeks during the school years, Sylvia Panetta attended his wrestling matches and Leon usually made it home Friday night for the boys' football games. To this day, the younger Panetta says his proudest accomplishment is his Mission Trail Athletic League championship medal for wrestling at Carmel High. Having a hometown was important.

He'd like the same for his daughters, who live in Montclair with their mother, an executive judge in Alameda County Superior Court. Panetta said he and Carrie have long planned to move south to Monterey County to raise their family.

Toward that end, he took what could be viewed as a lateral move, accepting a job in the Monterey County District Attorney's Office in 2010. Carrie is on a short list for one of two vacancies on the Monterey County bench. After three years of long-distance family life, Panetta said, his wife plans to move south with the girls no matter what Gov. Jerry Brown decides on the appointment.

Community involvement

In the meantime, Jimmy Panetta has joined a half dozen clubs, from Veterans of Foreign Wars to Sons of Italy, and sits on the boards of eight organizations, including the Ranch Cielo Youth Campus in Salinas, the UC Santa Cruz Foundation, National Steinbeck Center and the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee, where he is vice chairman.

He has been a central figure in the effort to build a veterans cemetery at Fort Ord. He received an appointment to the Sanctuary Advisory Council to protect one of the crown jewels of his father's legacy.

Supervisor Jane Parker said, "He's getting out, getting visible, making sure he understands the issues and perspective in the district, which seems like a prudent move. He really seems to be interested in a diverse number of topics and issues."

District Attorney Dean Flippo said Panetta's community involvement has not affected his prosecutorial performance. Flippo said he has been an asset to the gang prosecution unit, hitting the ground running in 2010 and winning complicated cases.

"He's an excellent listener and I think that's very important for anyone wanting to go into public service," the chief prosector said.

Leon Panetta said he and Sylvia raised their sons to decide their futures independent of their parents' path.

"Sylvia was great at not only being able to help manage my affairs, but to be a great mother to all three," Leon said.

Jimmy credits Monterey Peninsula College, which he attended before UC Davis, with teaching each of the boys how to take the hard work and commitment they put into sports and translate it into their professional lives. The eldest son, Chris, is an attorney with Fenton and Keller in Monterey. Carmelo is a cardiologist in Minneapolis.

Other potential candidates for Farr's seat, in addition to Monning and Burnett, are state Natural Resources Secretary John Laird and Assemblyman Luis Alejo.

Alejo said he plans to run for re-election in 2014 but has made no decisions for 2016, when he would be termed out. Laird could not be reached for comment. Monterey businessman Marc Risley, who has run as a Republican against Farr, is believed to be contemplating another campaign.

A brief biography of Jimmy Panetta, who plans to run for Rep. Sam Farr's seat when he retires, possibly in 2016:

Age: 43

Family: Wife, Carrie, and two daughters, Siri, 8, and Giovanna, 6.

Occupation: Monterey County deputy district attorney

Education: Monterey Peninsula College, associate of arts in general education, 1989; UC Davis, bachelor of arts in international relations, 1991; Santa Clara University School of Law, juris doctor, 1996.

Military service: Lieutenant in the Navy Reserve, in which he served from March 2003 to March 2011. Deployed to Afghanistan from July 2007 to July 2008 with the Joint Special Operations Command. Received Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service.

Community involvement: Has joined a half dozen clubs and sits on the boards of eight organizations, including the Ranch Cielo Youth Campus in Salinas, the National Steinbeck Center and the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee, where he is vice chairman. A central figure in the effort to build a veterans cemetery at Fort Ord. Received an appointment to the Sanctuary Advisory Council.